29 May 2011 - In July 2008, the National Justice Sector Strategy for Afghanistan called on UNAMA and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to establish the Provincial Justice Coordination Mechanism (PJCM) as a joint project whose overall aim was to improve the delivery of justice assistance in the provinces. The project was managed by the UNAMA Rule of Law Unit. Six of its eight regional offices were staffed by UNDP and the other two by UNAMA. The joint project closed in November 2010, but the activities of the PJCM continue to be undertaken by UNAMA’s Rule of Law Unit. Download the PDF of UN's Justice Update magazine

The three main areas of activity for the PJCM were to establish general justice coordination mechanisms in each province, to improve donor coordination and to prepare justice sector assessments.

WORKING IN PROVINCES AND DISTRICTS

In July 2008, there was little coordination among the justice institutions operating at the provincial level and few regular forums in which they could resolve problems. The PJCM teams established regular justice coordination
meetings in most provinces and by 2010 they were taking place in 30 out of 34 provinces. The fact that they continued, with leadership having passed in most cases to the judiciary, is a positive indication that they were found useful.

While one province even extended these meetings down to District level, the PJCM team in Kunduz initiated regional meetings of the justice institutions from four provinces in order to facilitate inter-provincial dialogue. The first such meeting produced a number of recommendations that have since been implemented and the Supreme Court subsequently required that these meetings take place in all judicial regions.

Coordination meetings addressed a wide range of problems, from systemic issues, such as lack of mutual understanding of the respective roles of the different institutions within the criminal justice process, to the practical, such as the inability of the police to serve summonses. Some issues, such as lack of staff or security, could not be resolved at a provincial level, but others could. Results included better linkages between the Criminal Investigation Departments of the Afghan National Police and the prosecution service, ensuring that defence lawyers had access to detention facilities and correcting the misapplication of criminal laws. In general, in an environment where justice delivery has been minimal, the importance of developing working relationships among the key justice actors should not be underestimated.

The PJCM teams also facilitated the creation of thematic working groups, particularly in respect of the criminal justice process (including detention and corrections aspects) and legal aid delivery, as well as separate meetings of donors and implementers, in order to identify the immediate needs of the justice institutions and find ways to fill them. These resulted in both relatively small initiatives, such as rebuilding a prison wall, and others with greater potential impact, such as funding of legal aid provision in provinces where there had been none, providing training
courses or providing lists of legal aid lawyers for local police stations and detention centres. Some groups addressed specific needs, in particular the detention review committees that were set up in Kandahar and Uruzgan.

The PCJM teams were engaged in various capacity building initiatives, ranging from facilitation of an academic
exchange between the law faculties in Kunduz and in Tehran, Iran, which resulted in a study tour of law professors from Kunduz and Mazar to Tehran in January 2010, to conducting monthly legal skills workshops for defence lawyers in Balkh province.

FRAMEWORK

The PJCM is a response to the need, at the provincial and district level, to move beyond the ad hoc initiatives being undertaken outside a central or coordinated framework. Prior to the establishment of the PJCM, international assistance efforts were designed, funded and implemented through a variety of ad hoc local justice assistance projects. Ultimately, the nature and approach to this support depended on the agency or bilateral actor active in each province. This inevitably resulted in uncoordinated and unstructured approaches leading to disconnected and uneven development. It became increasingly apparent that justice assistance activities at the provincial and district levels needed to be undertaken within an agreed nationally-driven framework with greater consistency in planning.

MAKING HEADWAY

With its presence in the provinces, UNAMA, through the PJCM, is widely seen by national authorities and international stakeholders as the entity best suited to facilitate provincial justice coordination. The PJCM has been effective in assisting the Government to systematically expand rule of law beyond Kabul and improve the delivery of justice assistance in the provinces, consistent with the National Justice Sector Strategy and the National Justice Programme. This has brought about a more constructive, collaborative and strategic reform process for the justice
sector resulting in improved donor cooperation, consultation and transparency at both the central and provincial level.